This Book of Mine

This short meditation by married cocreators Stewart and Small (The Gardener) opens as a young woman slips past a New York Public Library lion with a book clutched to her chest. “I take this book,” Stewart begins, “to be my friend” (the girl, now settled on a city fire escape, begins to read); “To chew on it while you read it” (a mother and baby share a book as the baby gnaws one corner); “To grab for it when I need it” (a young bed-goer searches under the nightstand with a flashlight). Within amethyst-washed spreads by Small, the book covers are picked out in contrasting colors—a gray-blue beach read, the yellow-tinged covers of a J.S. Bach composition. The makers catalogue more book joys before a ringing final phrase: “A treasure for a lifetime, this book friend of mine.” Small’s ink-and-wash spreads concentrate in particular on the readers’ faces; though they appear largely unrelated to one another, they emerge as genuine, ordinary people united by a love of reading. While the volume is unlikely to convert nonreaders, those who live and breathe books will understand the passion that Stewart and Small celebrate. Ages 3–6. (Aug.)